MP_art café gallery, Novi Sad, Serbia
29 November 2007 at 21:15 p.m
Duration: 50′ 36″.
Curator: MP
The performance takes place at the MP_art café gallery in Novi Sad, Serbia, during the closing of the exhibition MP_exp_16 PAIRS. MP took up positions behind the auction table. First P explained the aim of the auction and the auction’s protocol. Then the auction started.
The aim of the performance was to indicate two phenomena. A first phenomenon is the art market in Serbia, which does not exist in the way a Art Market should be. Second phenomenon is a more psychological one, the need of people to possess pieces of art on which they are present (the case of the exhibition Pairs). These tow phenomena are explained through the auction, and almost all relations in Serbia’s art world (the poorest country in the region). People only purchase art pieces if the piece is extremely cheap or if they posses much more money then they need. The first group of people rarely buy art or never do. The second group of wealthy people buy “respectable kitsch”, which is fancy, glamorous and dictated by commercial dealers and galleries. Art collecting is another phenomenon…
The performance ended when all 48 photos passed through the auction process. Then P gave a few concluding remarks and M finished administration and calculated the income.
Among others, one important question arose after the performance: who really needs art except for artists?
